St Jerome is one of the great church fathers. He is the author of the Vulgate.
Died in 420
Invitation
May I hereby draw your attention to
the daily reading of the Gospel?
This invitation wants to share with You the joy
of the Gospel. Everyone, no one except,
can experience that joy by opening their hearts
to the healing power of God’s word.
Available every day.
Consideration
Zechariah will also encourage his people during the construction of the second temple. At a time when many of them are lowering their arms in disillusionment and discouragement, folding back on their own lives, the prophet invites the builders of Jerusalem, in God’s name, to see things big.
To a Church inclined to ponder its own problems more than ever, God reiterates: ‘look beyond, look wider, see what cannot yet be seen but what is surely to come’! And to us – we who sometimes tend to retreat into a corner and focus blindly on our own problems and concerns – God says: ‘Step out, open your heart, bear the concerns of others’!
FIRST READING Zech. 2, 5-9a. 14-15a
I am coming and I will dwell with you.
From the Prophet Zechariah
I lifted up my eyes and had a vision :
I saw a man with a measuring rod in his hand.
I asked : “Where are you going?”
He answered me in reply :
“I am going to measure Jerusalem and see ,
how wide and how long it will be.”
Then the angel who spoke to me went away from me
and another angel came to meet him.
These said to him :
“Quickly. Tell that boy over there :
Jerusalem must remain open, not walled in,
because of the many people and animals
living in the city.”
I myself, reads the Lord’s divine word,
will be around her a wall of fire.
Rejoice and rejoice,
daughter Zion,
for behold, I am coming and I will dwell with you,
is the word of the Lord.
In that day many nations will
join themselves to the Lord.
INTERLUDIUM Jer. 31, 10, 11-12ab, 13
The Lord will guard us
as a shepherd shepherds his flock.
He who once scattered Israel
will gather it, will guard it
as a shepherd herds his flock.
Jacob will be delivered by the Lord,
loose from the grip of him who robbed it.
Jubilantly they shall enter Zion again,
set down where the Lord blesses them.
Girls dance a dance of joy
together with boys and greybeards.
Then I bring joy instead of mourning,
comfort and joy after all their sorrow.
ALLELUIA II Cor. 5, 19
Alleluia.
It was God who in Christ
reconciled the world to Himself,
and He gave us the message of reconciliation.
Alleluia.
GOSPEL Lk. 9, 43b-45
The Son of Man will be delivered up.
The disciples shrank from
questioning Him about this.
From the holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to
Luke
At that time,
while everyone was marvelling at all that Jesus was doing,
He spoke to His disciples :
“Have an open ear to what I say to you.
“The Son of Man will be delivered up
into the hands of men.”
Although they did not understand these words
-they remained veiled before them, –
so that they could not grasp it –
they shrank from questioning Him about it.
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Laudato Si
Encyclic of
POPE FRANCIS
On the care of the common home
61. The Church has no reason to propose a definitive word on many concrete issues and understands that it must listen to and promote honest debate among scholars while respecting different opinions. One need only look at reality to see that there is a great deterioration of our common home. Hope invites us to recognise that there is always a way out, that we can always change course, that we can always do something to solve problems. However, it seems, based on the great speed of change and decay, to encounter symptoms of a breaking point, visible both in regional natural disasters and in social or also financial crises, as the world’s problems cannot be analysed in isolation, nor explained. There are regions that are already at particular risk and, leaving aside any catastrophic prediction, it is certain that the current global system, viewed from different points of view, is unsustainable because we have ceased to think of the purposes of human action: “When the gaze passes along the regions of our planet, one immediately notices that humanity has disappointed divine expectation”.
To be continued
The Bible text in this issue is taken from The New Translation of the Bible,
©Dutch Bible Society 2004/2007.
Considerations from Liturgical suggestions for weekdays and Sundays
Laudato Si Official English translation
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